Hello lovely readers! Today I’m starting a new segment on my blog (I feel like I’m saying that a lot lately!) where at the end of each month I’ll reflect a bit over everything I’ve read, written, and photographed over the past month. I think this will be more interesting than traditional monthly wrap ups, and I hope that you enjoy it as well. 🙂

The Books I Read in August

All in all, I think I had quite a good reading month in August. I completed a total of of six books, got halfway through one novel and then decided to put it down, and am currently reading three books.My favorite book in August would probably have to be a tie between Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which was a reread for me, and It Ends with Us, which I am planning on writing a review of soon. If I’ve written a review of any of the other books mentioned below, that review will be linked.

1. The North Water by Ian McGuire 
2. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
3. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One and Two by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J.K. Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
5. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (review to come!)
6. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (review to come!
7. Hystopia by David Means (DNF)
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (currently reading)
9. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (currently reading)
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (currently reading)

What I Wrote in August

August was also an extremely prolific blogging month – including book reviews (which are linked above), I wrote twelve blog posts this month (*high fives self*). Here’s a list of everything I wrote this month. 🙂

• Shannon Recommends: Art History Books (Part One), in which I talk about three of my favorite art history books (and there are lots of pretty pictures!).
• Bookshelf Tour, Part One – Featuring Austen, Dickens, Woolf, and More, in which I take you on a tour of the first shelf of my bookcase and show you some of my favorite books.
• 14 of the Funniest Quotes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Bonus – Way Too Many Harry Potter GIFS), in which I share some quotes that tickled my funny bone during my reread of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
• The Classics Book Tag, in which I talk all about the classic novels I have read, the classic novels I want to read, and the classic novels I really didn’t like (plus it was my first ever tag, woo!).
• Pride and Prejudice Reread: Introduction and Chapter One, in which I commence a reread of my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice.

I also wrote four new installments in my Sunday Morning Book Chats series, where each Sunday I interview one of my favorite bookstagrammers about life, literature, and the magical world of bookstagram:

• Sunday Morning Book Chats Part 5 – Mathilde from @relationsheep
• Sunday Morning Book Chats Part 6 – Minh from @cassandrale179
• Sunday Morning Book Chats Part 7 – Freesia from @bookishreview
• Sunday Morning Book Chats Part 8 – Ankita from @thoughts_of_an_insomniac

What I Photographed in August

For those of you who don’t know, I don’t just write interviews with bookstagrammers, I am a bookstagrammer myself! My username is @reflectionsofareader, if you’re interested in following me (shameless bit of self-promotion there). I actually hit 1,000 followers on my bookstagram account in August, which is a major milestone, so thank you to everyone who helped me reach that goal! I can’t share every photo I took in August in this post, but I thought I would share the top six photos I took this month (photos that got the most likes). 🙂

My Favorite Literary Quotes of the Month

I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite quotes from the books I read in August, so here are a selection of some beautiful literary quotes that I discovered this past month.

• “This is a story about love, you know that. This is a story of a man who has been tortured every day of his life for things he did in the war. This is the story of a wife who stayed with him, because most wives did in that generation, and she comes to her daughter’s hospital room and talks compulsively about everyone’s marriage going bad, she doesn’t even know it, doesn’t even know that’s what she’s doing. This is a story about a mother who loves her daughter. Imperfectly. Because we all love imperfectly.” –My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
• “There is never a perfect answer in this messy, emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.” –Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J.K. Rowling
• “Just because we didn’t end up on the same wave, doesn’t mean we aren’t still a part of the same ocean.” –It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
• “There’s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting.” -Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

My Favorite Blog Posts of the Month

I also want to dedicate a section of these monthly reviews to talk about my favorite posts written by other bloggers during that month, as I follow a multitude of lovely individuals and I don’t gush about them nearly enough on this blog. 🙂

1. “8 books worth your time that have a gothic setting.” from Risa over at Breadcrumbs – I love a good Gothic novel, and I can’t wait to check out some of the books Risa recommends in this list.
2. “Shakespeare?: The Bard Adapted in the Restoration” from Pages Unbound – The lovely ladies over at Pages Unbound have been writing a whole series of posts on the Bard all throughout August, and this one in particular is a really interesting look at how Shakespeare’s plays were altered and adapted during the Restoration.
3. “How to Write an English Literature Dissertation, in 21 Easy Steps” from Sara over at Majoring in Literature – I’m sure English Lit students will relate to Sara’s hilarious guide to writing a dissertation – even if you aren’t an English Lit student, you’re bound to get a good laugh out of this.
4. “Compass’d by the Inviolate Sea: Marine Painting in Cornwall from Turner to Wallis” from Jane over at Beyond Eden Rock – I love anything to do with art or art history, and this post, based upon an exhibition Jane went to go see, showcases some really beautiful marine paintings from the coasts of Cornwall.
5. “A few thoughts as a senior undergrad in literature. (In which I graze the topic Austen and then totally focus on Shakespeare” from Jillian over at Oh My Words – As she prepares to enter he final year as an undergraduate literature student, Jillian pens her thoughts on what she’s learned over the years and how she’s learned to look more deeply at literature. (Jillian also wrote a really beautiful poem titled “The Birth of Scarlett O’Hara” that you should go check out as well.)

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So that’s it for my look back at the month of August! I start my first year of university in September, so I will have to adjust to balancing blogging and college, but overall I’m really excited for all of my classes. I hope you all had a remarkable August, and here’s to a spectacular September!